Abstract
Unmanned systems are gradually becoming more autonomous, meaning they can perform more tasks with less micromanagement. These systems will have increasing importance in military operations over the next years. For communication with these systems, a language that is unambiguous and machine interpretable is needed. Battle management language (BML) refers to such a language, which can be used to exchange digitized forms of orders, reports and requests. BML has mainly been developed to support inter-operation among command and control (C2) systems and C2 and simulation systems, but BML has also been used for robotic systems. The only standardized BML so far is coalition battle management language (C-BML), which specifically addresses the needs associated with coalition operation.
In this paper we describe our effort in applying BML to an unmanned surface vehicle and an unmanned ground vehicle. The unmanned systems are able to autonomously perform tasks like move from A to B, move along a route, patrol, and survey an area. However, transition from teleoperated systems to more autonomous systems is progressing gradually, meaning we still want at least the possibility to provide relatively detailed instructions to the robotic system. In addition, the ability to make small adjustments of the behavior is sometimes useful. We find that there is a gap between the standards for teleoperation and BML in its current form and would like a discussion on how to best fill this gap. Our preliminary solutions are presented in this paper.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
OLAV = Off-road Light Autonomous Vehicle.
- 2.
Note that we did not consider the C-BML full scheme.
References
Google Protocol Buffers. https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
Alstad, A., Løvlid, R.A., Bruvoll, S., Nielsen, M.N.: Autonomous battalion simulation for training and planning integrated with a command and control information system. FFI-rapport 2013/01547, Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt (2013)
Brook, A.: UK experiences of using coalition battle management language. In: Proceedings of the 15th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (2011). https://doi.org/10.1109/ds-rt.2011.25
Bruvoll, S., et al.: Simulation-suported wargaming for analysis of plans. In: Proceedings of the NATO Modelling and Simulation Group Symposium M&S Support to Operational Tasks Including War Gaming, Logistics, Cyber Defence (MSG-133) (2015)
Carey, S., Kleiner, M., Hieb, M., Brown, R.: Standardizing battle management language - a vital move towards the army transformation. In: Proceedings of the 2001 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 01F-SIW-067 (2001)
Carey, S., Kleiner, M., Hieb, M., Brown, R.: Standardizing battle management language - facilitating coalition interoperability. In: Proceedings of the 2002 European Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 02E-SIW-OO5 (2002)
Garmendia-Doval, A., García-Juliá, I.: C-BML orders in a course of action analysis simulator. In: Proceedings of the 2008 Euro Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 08E-SIW-037 (2008)
Hodicky, J.: Standards to support military autonomous system life cycle. In: Březina, T., Jabłoński, R. (eds.) MECHATRONICS 2017. AISC, vol. 644, pp. 671–678. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65960-2_83
Hodicky, J., Prochazka, D.: Challenges in the implementation of autonomous systems into the battlefield. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International conference on Military Technologies (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/miltechs.2017.7988855
Huang, H.M. (ed.): Autonomy levels for unmanned systems (ALFUS) framework volume i: terminology. Special Publication 1011-I-2.0, National Institute of Standards and Technology (2008)
Kruger, K., Frey, M., Schade, U.: Battle management language: military communication with simulated forces. In: NATO RTO MSG-056 Symposium on Improving M&S Interoperability, Re-Use and Efficiency in Support of Current and Future Forces (2007)
Mathiassen, K., Baksaas, M., Olsen, L.E., Thoresen, M., Tveit, B.: Development of an autonomous off-road vehicle for surveillance missions. In: Proceedings of IST-127/RSM-003 Specialists’ Meeting in Intelligence & Autonomy in Robotics. NATO Science and Technology Organization, Bonn, Germany, October 2016
NATO Modeling & Simulation Group 048: Coalition battle management language (C-BML) - NMSG-048 final report. RTO-TR-MSG-048, NATO Research and Technology Organization (2012)
NATO Modeling & Simulation Group 085: Standardisation for C2-simulation interoperability - final report of NMSG-085. STO-TR-MSG-085, NATO Science and Technology Organization (2015)
Rein, K., Remmersmann, T., Schade, U., Trautwein, I.: Command and control lexical grammar for commanding teams of robots (Robot-C2LG). Fraunhofer FKIE (2015)
Remmersmann, T., Schade, U., Rein, K., Tiderko, A.: BML for communicating with multi-robot systems. In: Proceedings of the 2015 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop (2015)
Remmersmann, T., Schade, U., Schlick, C.M.: Interactive multi-robot command and control with quasi-natural command language. In: Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/smc.2014.6973952
Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO): Standard for Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) Phase 1, SISO-STD-011-2014 (2014)
Tolk, A., Dially, S.: A system view of C-BML. In: Proceedings of the 2007 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 07F-SIW-054 (2007)
Wiig, M.S., Løvlid, R.A., Mathiassen, K., Krogstad, T.R.: Decision autonomy for unmanned vehicles. In: Proceedings of IST-127/RSM-003 Specialists’ Meeting in Intelligence & Autonomy in Robotics. NATO Science and Technology Organization, Bonn, Germany, October 2016
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Seehuus, R.A., Mathiassen, K., Ruud, EL.M., Skjerlie Simonsen, A., Hermansen, F. (2019). Battle Management Language for Robotic Systems. In: Mazal, J. (eds) Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems. MESAS 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11472. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14984-0_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14984-0_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14983-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14984-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)